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No. 14 Navy Defeats No. 12 St. Francis 12-11 in Sudden Death Overtime; Navy to Play Princeton for Eastern Title
ANNAPOLIS, Md. -- Kyle Wertz (Fr., San Diego, Calif.) completed a hat-trick with 2:14 left in sudden death overtime to lead the No. 14 ranked Midshipmen of the United States Naval Academy to a 12-11 victory over No. 12 St. Francis College in the semifinals of the 2008 Eastern Championship at the United States Naval Academy.
The game was a tightly contested affair between two teams with a past history this year as the Midshipmen defeated St. Francis 9-8 earlier this season.
St. Francis jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the game as Stefan Gencic (So., Belgrade, Serbia) scored on an advantage opportunity at 6:50 and Nemanja Pucarevic (Sr., Belgrade, Serbia) buried a natural goal at 5:56 for the Terriers. Navy countered with back-to-back goals by Mike Mulvey (Sr., Carlsbad, Calif.) at 5:31 and 3:40 to tie the game before the Terriers pumped in consecutive scores at 3:03 and 2:27 by Pucarevic and Tamas Toth (Fr., Budapest, Hungary) on an exclusion and at even strength, respectively.
Again Navy came back as the Mids received exclusion goals from Alex Kofsky (So., Los Angeles, Calif.) and Wertz at 1:57 and 32 seconds to retie the game before the end of the first period.
The goals gave Navy the momentum as Mulvey ripped a penalty shot home at 7:09, Kofsky netted an even-strength goal at 5:34 and Kevin Bell (Jr., Naperville, Ill.) scored on an exclusion chance with 30 seconds to go in the second period to give the Midshipmen a 7-4 lead at halftime.
St. Francis sliced the lead back to 9-7 by the end of the third period as Filip Sasic (Fr., Zagreb, Croatia) registered an even-strength goal at 4:51 and scored on a penalty shot at 3:18 before Boris Plavsic (So., Belgrade, Serbia) tacked on a natural goal at 27 seconds to account for the Terriers' scoring.
Navy added goals to keep a two-score lead at the end of the period as Kofsky scored on an exclusion at 4:28 and Wertz rang up a goal with two seconds left in the third period to set the score at 9-7 entering the final eight minutes of regulation.
The Midshipmen used Wertz's late score to regain the momentum as he scored again at 3:58 of the fourth period to give Navy a 10-7 lead. However, St. Francis rallied back as Zoltan Danko (Sr., Szolnok, Hungary) registered an exclusion goal at 1:47, Plavsic racked up an exclusion goal at 1:28 and Sasic split the Midshipmen defense for a score with 34 seconds left in regulation to erase Navy's nearly insurmountable three goal lead, tie the game and force overtime.
In the two three-minute extra frames, both teams had their chances to seal victory as Kofsky scored off an exclusion at 1:48 and Sasic registered a natural goal at 1:32 to keep the game tied through 35 minutes of play.
The second overtime period saw neither team find the twine in the back of the cage as the Terriers' Nikola Djuric (So., Belgrade, Serbia) blocked away a penalty shot at 1:53 and Brett Rajchel (Jr., Winter Park, Fla.) made two of his three overtime saves in the second OT period to keep the score equal through 38 minutes.
However, Navy put the game away 46 seconds into sudden death as Wertz chucked a shot from approximately six meters out which sailed past Djuric to the right side of the cage for the win.
Rajchel earned Player of the Game honors for Navy making 13 saves, while Djuric also blocked down 13 shots.
The game featured three yellow cards, red cards to St. Francis coach Carlos Omana, Boris Plavsic (So., Belgrade, Serbia) and Pucarevic, two misconducts and nearly 39 minutes of non-stop action.
Navy, which captured the 2006 and 2007 Eastern titles, will seek to become the first program since the 1993-96 teams of the University of Massachusetts to win three or more consecutive Eastern crowns when the Midshipmen meet No. 13 Princeton University at 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, November 23 for the Eastern Championship.
Historically, Yale University (1972-74), Bucknell University (1977-80), Brown University (1983-85), Navy (1986-88) and UMass are the only teams to win three or more Easterns. The last program to have a chance to capture three-consecutive Eastern crowns fell short as UMass won the 1998 and 1999 titles, lost to Navy in 2000 and returned to take the 2001 championship.
The 1986, 1987, 1988, 1990, 2000, 2003, 2006 and 2007 Eastern titleists, the Midshipmen will have a chance to down Princeton for titles in two of the last three years. In 2006, Princeton fell at home to the Mids 9-6. Last year, the Midshipmen dropped St. Francis 11-7 at Harvard University for their second consecutive title.
Further, Navy will seek to become the first host school to win the championship since since the Midshipmen achieved the feat with an 8-6 win over Princeton for the 2003 title.
Princeton, which is led by Navy alumnus Luis Nicolao, will seek to knock off Navy for the second time in a row as the Tigers downed the Midshipmen 12-11 in New Jersey for the Southern Division title.
The win snapped Navy's 12-match Southern Tournament win streak, dating back to the 2004 season, and set the season series between the two teams at 1-2 as Navy downed Princeton 8-6 earlier on October 26 and fell to the Tigers 7-3 on September 27.
St. Francis will conclude the tournament and season at noon on November 23 versus No. 17 Brown University in the third place game. This year, the Terriers are 1-1 against the Bears as Brown downed St. Francis 9-8 during the regular season but fell 15-5 in the Northern Division title game.
| Team | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | OT | SD OT | Final |
| St. Francis | 4 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 11 |
| Navy | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 12 |
Navy Goals: Ales Kofsky (4); Kyle Wertz (3); Mike Mulvey (3); Andrew Neuwirth; Kevin Bell
St. Francis Goals: Filip Sasic (4); Boris Plavsic (2); Nemanja Pucarevic (2); Tamas Toth; Stefan Gencic; Zoltan Danko
Saves: Navy - Brett Rajchel (13) ; St. Francis - Nikola Djuric (13)
Ejections: Navy - 21 ; St. Francis - 16
Sprints: Navy - 2 (1st - Luke Baldwin, SD - Kevin Bell) ; St. Francis - 4 (1st & 2nd - Boris Plavsic, OT & 2OT - Pal Pasztrai)
